Tigers manager Jim Leyland pulls prank on Joel Zumaya

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland pulled an early April Fool’s Day prank on reliever Joel Zumaya by having him called into his office after telling Robbie Weinhardt he was being sent to the minors. Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski and assistant GM Al Avila also were present and played along.

“Skip says, ‘Sit down, son,’ “ Zumaya said. “Then, straight-faced, he says, ‘We have options left on you and we want you to go down and work on your curveball …But you’ve made our team.’

“And he just went into this deep laugh. It was awesome. I was checking my watch to make sure it wasn’t April 1st. My heart was really beating. Man, he got me.”

Zumaya threw on back-to-back days for the first time this spring with no problem. He got a strike out and force out with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth inning of a 10-9 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

Odds & endsThe Michigan Senate unanimously passed a resolution recognizing April 9
as Ernie Harwell Day across the state. Harwell, 92, is a Hall of Fame
announcer who called Tigers games in five different decades. He lives
in Novi and has inoperable pancreatic cancer. ... ESPN college basketball
announcer Dick Vitale was in attendance Tuesday, rooting on his Tigers,
baby. But wait, he was wearing an Orioles cap. ... Shortstop Ramon Santiago
came out after colliding with Inge chasing a ball in the ninth inning.
“I had the wind knocked out of me,” Santiago said. “But I’m OK.”
Reliever Eddie Bonine was nicked on the right shoulder by a line shot
off the bat of Adam Jones. “It just grazed me and left a little red
spot,” Bonine said.